Firm moves into old smelter site

A new company has moved onto the site of the former Alcan smelter in south east Northumberland.

Lynx Precast Limited, which specialises in the design, manufacture and installation of precast concrete flooring systems for the UK construction industry, has taken up residence at the former Rio Tinto smelter site in Ashington.

The company is the only hollowcore slab manufacturer in the north east, and chose the site, which is now owned by brownfield regeneration company Harworth Estates, due to its strategic location and the range of large-scale industrial buildings.

Andy Teasdale, managing director of Lynx Precast, and his business partner Paul Cutler have invested more than £1million in the new plant, and were awarded £262,800 from the Northumberland Business Growth programme.

Andy said: “It’s been an amazing start for the business.

“We are using the very latest software, manufacturing techniques and equipment and feel very confident that we can consistently design and manufacture products to the very highest standards.

“The construction industry is steadily recovering after being hard hit during the recession and our order book reflects that.

“We’ve got some fantastic customers ranging from independent housebuilders looking for bespoke flooring solutions to major regional and national developers including Bellway, Persimmon and Esh Group, builders’ merchants and groundworks specialists.”

Councillor Dave Ledger, chair of Arch and deputy leader of Northumberland County Council, added: “Lynx Precast provides a perfect illustration of why we used RGF to set up the Northumberland Business Growth programme.

“Andy and Paul had a terrific concept that very clearly had the potential to create employment.

“Thanks to their entrepreneurship and supported by RGF, Lynx Precast has already exceeded the number of jobs we envisaged when the grant was awarded.

“It’s especially pleasing also to see other local firms such as Sanray Freight benefit as a consequence of the support provided to Lynx Precast.”

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